“I’ll try not to betray your trust,” she said. “I learned just now that Tini’s friend had been staying at Hotel Carlton over in the city. I’m afraid he’s already left there. He wrote her he had to leave unexpectedly.”
Suddenly the major’s hearty laughter filled the little room. “So he got wise to the fact that he was being watched!”
“Oh—so you already knew he was staying there?”
Major Reed became wary. “We had a line on him.”
“But how?” asked Nancy. “Tini did come in on that next bus the other night. Nobody here had time to get into the village and follow him after he put Tini on the bus.”
“I acted on your information promptly. There’s such a thing as the telephone,” he reminded Nancy.
He made this unsatisfactory explanation with a finality that told her she must inquire no further into his end of the business.
“Have you learned anything else?” he asked.
“Yes. Tini told us she met him in Charleston. He’s a traveling salesman, uses the trains instead of a car. He suggested that Tini join the Army Nurse Corps.”
“So!” Major Reed’s dark eyebrows lifted slightly.